Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Watching the news last night I was moved by the report and family interviews of yet another fatal stabbing in our South Florida public schools. This just happened on the heels of the Yale student who was found killed and stuffed into the wall of her classroom. And images of Columbine may never leave our collective consciousness.

With all the violence in our schools today, is it any wonder that more and more families are turning to homeschooling as a viable option? Couple the violence with entire school closings due to the swine flu outbreak and it seems that the best solution might be to bring school back to the home where it all started. Even if the decision isn't permanent it might be a viable solution until the school reopens from the latest quarantine.

The media talks about homeschooling as if it is something new. A new trend in a new time but in reality everyone was homeschooled when our country was young and public schools didn't exist. Actually a centrally controlled secondary education system funded by the state was a concept elevated in importance and implemented by Napoleon in 1802. Since that time public, private and religious education systems have come to dominate the former domain of homeschooling.

So where do you start if you decide, "Okay, I'm going to look into this homeschooling thing to see if it might be for me?" Here's a link to a great resource for anyone just getting started, the Welcome to Homeschooling Guide compiled by Time4Learning. And the best resource ever for homeschoolers is the Internet, where everything old is new again. As parents, no stone can be left unturned to protect our students from the violence that threatens them where they study. Happy reading!